Paediatrics · History + examination

Feverish baby, six weeks old - Emergency Department

HardYear 5 · Curtin style · 15 min + 2 min reading · 4 tasks

2 min reading · 15 min station · reminders at 2 min

Station - Instructions for candidate

You are an intern working in the paediatric area of a metropolitan Emergency Department in Perth. It is 11 pm; the paediatric registrar is available by phone and will attend when called.

Noah Callaghan, six weeks old, is in a cot in the paediatric bay with his mum, who is worried about him.

Weight
4.5 kg

Your tasks are to:

  1. Take a focused history from the mother.
  2. Perform a focused examination.
  3. Request any relevant investigations and interpret the results provided.
  4. Explain your provisional diagnosis and your initial management plan to the mother.
  • The infant is represented by a mannequin; the mother is played by a simulated patient.
  • Please verbalise your examination to the examiner; findings will be provided on request.

This is a 15-minute station, with 2 minutes of reading time.

Ask the examiner

Say what you would examine or request, the way you would in the station. Nothing is named until you ask for it.

Whatever the examiner recognises is revealed below. Or pick a numbered item to reveal it blind.

Investigations

Ask for a category the way you would in the station: “Can I have the obs and a set of bloods?”

Examination

Say what you would examine and how; the examiner reports what you would find.

After treatment

Once you have acted, ask how the patient has responded.